Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1500904
3. APPRECIATION, APOLOGY, AHA!: Students sit or stand in a circle to reflect on their day. They can identify something they 've appreciated that day, an apology they 'd like to deliver, or an aha moment they 've experienced during the course of the day. The activity can surface important insights about lessons (particularly during aha moments) and can also help build stronger social bonds in the classroom. 4. CREATE NEWS "HEADLINES" OR "SIX- WORD SUMMARIES": Pair students off and tell them to imagine they're writing news headlines that summarize what they 've learned. Chal- lenge each pair to write at least two headlines, then come back together to review the headlines. Alternatively, do this as an entire class activity, writing the headlines suggested by students on your whiteboard. For a different spin, try a "six-word summary " of the most important idea or concept. Because students are limited in word count and choice, they must think about what is most crucial to say. 5. TRAFFIC LIGHT: On Twitter, an educator shared that they 've affixed a picture of a traffic light on the door as a quick check for understanding at the end of a lesson. Before students leave the room, they take sticky notes and write one thing they learned in the lesson and place it on the green light, one thing they 're still mulling over and place it on yellow light, and one thing they 're struggling to under- stand and place it on the red light. The activity takes a minute to do, and after students leave, teachers can easily discover important insights about their students' grasp of the material at hand. 6. VIDEO JOURNALS: Use the free app ChatterPix to get students creating and sharing video journals describing what they 've learned. Because this can take a little time to create, this strategy might be best suited as a wrap-up activity at the end of a unit. The videos are playful and fun, and can easily be posted to classroom platforms like Seesaw. 7. ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: Flip the familiar game on its head to create a simple reflec- tion worksheet students can use to think deeply — and critically — about the content they 're learning. The "rock" of the content asks students to identify the hardest part, the "paper " asks them to distill the main idea of a topic, and the "scissors" asks them to think about less important details that they might discard as they consolidate their learning. 8. QUIZ THE NEXT CLASS: Have students use the free platform Kahoot! to come up with quiz questions and multiple choice answers to give to their peers studying the same material in other classes. Recent research suggests that generating good questions promotes deeper engagement with content and improves retention. 9. MAKE YOUR CLASSROOM A BEACH: This activity will get students out of their seats and shar- ing with the whole class. Write reflective questions on a beach ball using dry erase markers. Questions might include things like: " What is one thing you learned during today 's lesson?" or " What was challenging about today 's lesson?"As the ball bounces around the room, you can come up with a mechanism for deciding which question they have to answer out loud — such as the question their left thumb is touching, or the very first question they see. Use the responses to generate further discussion about the day 's lesson. 10. OPTIMISTIC CLOSURES: These are simple ways to get students reflecting on the day 's learning, identifying next steps, and strengthening their classroom community at the same time. Try the One Word Share, which asks students to stand in a circle and respond to a prompt like, "What's one word to describe how you're feeling about the day?" or "What's one word that stands out to you from our lesson?" Capture responses in a word cloud and do a quick debrief to see where the class landed. The Human Bar Graph is another twist that gets students moving. Label points along a line drawn on the floor or across a wall that show different levels of mastery: I'm con- fused, I'm okay, I got this. Ask students to stand where they feel most comfortable. This exercise requires a certain level of vulnerability, so it's best to try it once you have built some trust with students. This story originally appeared in Edutopia. "Write reflective questions on a beach ball using dry erase markers, such as ' What is one thing you learned during today's lesson?' or ' What was challenging about today's lesson'?" 40 cta.org Teaching & Learning